National Jambo Troop C118

Jamboree thoughts

We are located at subcamp C which happens to be fairly central to everything but that does not mean that it is necessarily close to everything. Boys are going to get sick of hiking.

Arrived at our camp and watched the boys pitch together and set up camp. Our camp consists of two large canopy covers for our dining area and two rows of tents provided by the BSA. We are sleeping on cots and the boys are moderately excited about that.

Interesting to see two types of boys on scout camps. I have observed this over the many years. One type of boy is one who just works until he gets all of the work done. They don’t need to be told what to do, they just find projects and remain active. They other boy has to be told what to do and when they finish that they have to be directed to do something else. I have always wondered if there is a direct correlation between involvement and successes in life. I wonder what kind of study could be done? Most of our boys were fully invested in helping set up camp. What a wonderful sight to see….boys working together, happy, content, doing good.

I had to attend an orientation course and finalize medical forms from our troop. What a task to go through item by item, boy by boy.

Opening ceremony. Extremely Hot. A lot of introductions, video. Spectacular sight to see 40,000 scouts with lots of energy. Taylor Made sang (country singer, NOT Taylor Swift). I need to remember to give feedback to suggest that the opening ceremonies should NOT be done in the blistering heat of mid day. That was not a good idea in my opinion.

Came back to camp—lunch patrol packed lunches for everyone and we walked about two miles to do the stand up paddleboards.

Each patrol is assigned either breakfast, lunch or dinner. One patrol is assigned cleanup. Some boys are so messy when it comes to just throwing their paper on the ground when they eat a candy or something. The cleanup is doing reasonably well. They boys are overall doing fine though. Meals usually result with several spills and other interesting messes. I chuckle at these. It eventually gets cleaned up.

The food has been good. Breakfast has been mostly NON-cooked items: cereal, sweet rolls, fruit etc.. 2-3 breakfasts will be cooked. Lunches are usually just provided snacks that we throw together into plastic sacks. We have been promoting sack lunches every day because everything is so far away and we have suggested that they choose an area at jamboree and stay there all day with a buddy or a group from our troop.

We pick up our food with two wagons….the assigned patrol has to walk about a mile or so to pick up the food items from a trailer. They make one run in the morning at 5:30 AM to pick up breakfast and lunch and one in the afternoon (dinner patrol) at about 5:00 PM. Boys progressively have taken on this responsibility.

What is so impressive about this jamboree that we have noticed is the incredible professionalism demonstrated by the staff. Many are retired lawyers, CEO’s etc. as well as current non-retired high quality volunteers. They are truly class acts. I really have never seen such distinguished individuals volunteering at the activities. They are extremely pleasant, appear to be enjoying what they are doing, and are kind and patient with the boys. This has been an incredibly pleasant surprise to me. I constantly hope that they are satisfied with their service. We have met some incredible men devoting their time.

Patch trading frenzies!!!! I find it interesting to see they boys that are into patch trading and those who are not. We had a good discussion with the boys about how to trade patches and what to look out for. There are a lot of sharks out there, taking advantage of some of the younger boys. Our boys though are armed with information. Many of the older boys are surprisingly heavily involved with patch trading.

So much to do around here! Most boys are involved with the high adventure activities- BMX, Scuba, Paddle boards, Water obstacle course, skateboard, Downhill biking, Mountain biking, canopy zip lines.

Gave Grant Laurence award for doing the most on the first full day…

He went to …

AT&T center

Genealogy merit badge

Thomas S Monson award.

Family life

Ropes course

Donkey tent

Archery

Airsoft

Brownsea island

10.

Scout mode center

National Geographic center

12.

Disc throwing tent

13.

Wheel chair basketball

14.

Wheel chair bowling

15.

Nascar tent

16.

NASA tent

17.

Duck dynasty tent.

His favorite….Thomas S. Monson award.

Wednesday- Day of service.

Today we boarded a bus and went to the New River Gorge to do service. Second oldest river in the world.

We were greeted by friendly National Park Service rangers who were our hosts for the day who gave us our assignments. I profusely thanked them for the opportunity to provide service. They stated that they were under staffed are REALLY needed our assistance to improve a trail.

We arrive to a beautiful 80 year old bowery and park surrounded by a densely wooded area. We were taken up into the mountain and were given the task to clear trails in this area.

Our group split up in two and met in the center.

Some were given sickles, some had shovels, rakes, hoes. Everyone worked and I was surprised at how the boys responded with enthusiasm to make these trails look good. One particular area had large overgrowth of vegetation and we really did make a difference. The trails looked nice and we can be proud of what we did.

As we were leaving we all saw a family walking on the trails and enjoying them, noteing their smiles as they were enjoying an afternoon in the backcountry. This made us smile.

I ate lunch with Wayne and spoke briefly to him about the church and gave him a BOM and encouraged him to read it.

Saturday.

Our regular schedule…

5:30 breakfast crew traveling 15 minutes with wagons to pick up breakfast and lunch boxes. Good organization. Most food is pre-cooked (as compared to World Jambo where everything was made from scratch) . Preparation is good as we really just need to warm it up. I am grateful to those individuals who had the foresight and spent hours cooking and preparing and organizing our food. I think of them everytime I see the boys coming back to camp with their nicely organized food boxes. Doubt the boys realize that hours/days/months have been spent in preparation to make our experience a pleasant one. I am reminded that so many people sacrifice to make many things great for us. We should always have gratitude for those who we never meet or see who sacrifice for us.

6:00 wake up time…..I walk up and down the tent lines waking each tent up. Each tent has two boys. Leader tents have one per tent. Each boy sleeps on a cot and the tents are looking a little unlivable at this point. We have encouraged cleaning and organizing as much as possible but many of the boys content to live in amazing scattered messy states.

6:30 breakfast

7:00 leave camp.

Morning is free time. The concert is postponed today because of rain tonight. Rain in the forcast EVERY day from here on out.

I took a group of boys to the high mountain (45 minute walk from here) and went Mountain boarding, BMX bike riding, and skateboarding.

Mountain boarding was a unique experience. We were taught by friendly staff. The boys were disappointed that after passing the beginner and intermediate course, the expert course was closed. I had never heard of nor seen a mountain skateboard let alone get on one and ride. Quite fun!!! We practiced J turns and skate stops.

BMX racing. Huge track. Much bigger than the track down at action point. This is a popular activity and many boys who are quite good at it and have had experience.

I get a lot of trash talking….”old man is going down”. I have yet to lose a heat except for the heat that the pro joined us on. Have yet to see any other scout leaders participate in BMX and many other activities even though they are welcomed and even encouraged. Many scoutmasters in other troops around us just stay in camp while the boys are outside of camp doing some of the most thrilling high adventure activites that I have ever experienced. I am thrilled to have leaders that not only want to do the activities but spend their time with the boys and living experiences, making memories instead of just spending time at camp. Sometime I laugh because I am not sure that the C118 leaders aren't more excited about the high adventure activities than the boys are.

Luke Madsen, Sam Stobbe, and Ryan Giles wanted to go skateboarding in the WORLDS LARGEST skateboarding park. I went with them. I have not been on a skateboard since my youth let alone a skateboarding park. I got comfortable to say “dropping in” and take the drops into the middle of the obstacles. I wiped a couple of time and my last crash I injured my left wrist badly. I am reminded that I am old. Left hip hurts too. Now I am starting to figure why those scoutmasters are staying at camp during the activities. Perhaps they are more wise than I.

Sunday. Sabbath.

Same early schedule. Boys were hoping to have at least one day to sleep in even a little. Today was not that day. We all got up early and went to church. It had rained hard during the night and everything was a sloppy mess.

What a sight to behold! The longest sacrament table I have ever seen. I estimated that it was approx. 90 yards long. ~70 priests. ~180 deacons. Elder Anderson from the Quorum of the Twelve. A beautiful humid West Virginia day-of-rest morning. We estimated 4500 in attendance. Sacrament amazingly took only about 20 minutes.

Elder Anderson’s talk was very powerful.

It had been raining fairly heavy during the sacrament and during Sister Anderson’s words and it was slightly miserable. Elder Anderson then stood in the rain under a canopy that had been brought out to shield them from the downpour. His first words were (somewhat casually), “I have enough faith that it will stop raining if I step outside this canopy to talk to you.” He said it like it was not that big of a deal. It didn’t strike anyone as miraculous, and to some it may have seemed as a statement of “I hope that…..”. It perhaps seemed a little unlikely because of the gray skies and the pattern of weather, but sure enough the rain immediately cleared as if it were scripted as part of an act and not only did the rain stop but the sun shined brightly. We expected it would as this was one of the Lord's prophets seers and revelators. The weather turned from dull and drab to sunshine and light.

He recounted a story told to him by a Brother Wynn who served as an agent in the FBI. He told a story about a drug bust when Agent Wynn and other agents broke into a home to seize drug dealers and their stash. He was allowed entrance into the home and was greeted by an individual with a friendly smile. His first impression was that he was harmless as he did not appear in any way to portray evil or danger. As he stepped in and entered the home he passed this seemingly harmless man who now stood at Agent Wynn's back. He then heard a voice saying, “BEWARE OF THE EVIL BEHIND THE SMILING EYES”. He immediately turned to face him at the same time the individual was in process of getting a gun to aim at his head for the kill. He had enough strength to avoid any injury and stripped him of his gun avoiding a disaster. He then spoke about the evil behind smiling eyes in our lives. He spoke of pornography. He spoke about “On my honor I will do my best to GOD” . I took notes on my iPhone. He pleaded, “I warn you in the name of the Lord to be clean and pure!”

The rest of the day was devoted to earning the Thomas S. Monson award, going to merit badge classes, walking around the Summit Center, visiting booths, attending Jambopalloza. I spent some time with a group of boys trying to catch water balloons about 100 yards away from a trebuchet launching them high into the air. Some of us participated in setting a new world record by launching 25,000 beach balls above us. The largest human sized popcorn popping machine I had ever seen.

Preach my gospel evening devotional continues to be a highlight of my day. I am so impressed with the presentation and even more astonished at the discussions that these boys are having. I now sit outside of the circle they form and observe and hold my tongue and allow them to interact as if I were not even present. I then make my observations and teach principles of the gospel at the final conclusion. The meeting takes only 15 minutes but it is part of a plan that builds these boys into men of God.

In one evening devotional, Tucker Pike told the other boys at that leaving phones home was the best decision that the leaders made. He was grateful he did not have this as a distraction. All of them hated the idea when it was announced several months ago but those who matured during this grand experience saw the wisdom. All boys in our group agreed with him.

For three days we switched our troop meetings from 9:30 pm. (which usually meant 10 pm) which then was followed by PMG (usually at 10:30) Boys have been, for the most part, going to bed at 11:00 or 11:30 and we have not had ONE day for them to sleep past 6 am. Breakfast crew is up every morning at 5:30 to retrieve the boxes for the morning food. We are definitely working (or should I say playing?) them hard. Stringent schedule has become the norm. I have been actually fairly surprised at the lack of complaining as I awaken them every morning. We encourage (force?) them out of camp to maximize their experience.

Another word about the high adventure activities….As I have prepared for the jamboree I was excited about the high adventure list of activities. I was expecting the usual BSA facilities and resources… mostly mediocre at best. I expected good quality but not necessarily great. My expectations were exceeded at an extreme degree! I am a little disbelieving at what they have put into these HIGHEST quality activities. The tracks, courses are WORLD CLASS and the facilities are arguably the highest quality. I am more than pleasantly surprised and as our river guide stated, “It is an amazing utopia”. Its kind of like Disneyland for the extreme high outdoor adventurer. The skateboarding park is not only the largest in the world but also so nicely designed (so my rad boys tell me). The BMX track, the starting gates built by the X-games. The mountain biking downhill course 97 times better than any other mountain bike ride I have ever been on (yes even Moab). The scuba pools, the ropes course, the zip lines (many zip lines all over the camp-don’t know the exact number). One zip line is over one mile long! (one mile long).

Some thoughts about some of the activities.

Each activity is preceeded by a debriefing and an appropriate instruction on the equipment and techniques used at each venue. The instruction is excellent. Not too long, not too short. Seems entirely appropriate. Many if not most boys are trying things for the first time.

High Gear mountain biking. We geared up with arm and knee pads and with helmet and a debriefing. I should note here that at each venue that required elbow pads, knee pads, helmet, wrist pads, helmet, gloves was a unique experience because we had to put on equipment that was wet from previous riders sweat. Yuck- (but well worth the yuck). The volunteers kept saying with a straight face and tried to make us believe that the dripping liquid from the equipment is from the sanitizing solution used to disinfect between riders. We watched them once sanitizing equipment and saw that the process included a brief spray over. Definitely not enough to cause drippiness and oversaturation of liquid.

We were placed on phase I assessment course that we all needed to pass before we could do the big courses. I am amazed at how many boys are unskilled at biking. Most of our boys however were pretty good on the bike. I marveled at boys however from other troops so clumsy at biking. I wondered if computer games have anything to do with this interesting observation. I hear a lot of “chatter” about video games from boys around the jamboree.

We all passed the first phase and then the second. The second phase was called the pump course and consisted table top jumps that were actually quite fun. We had to pass on three different courses in order to get our wrist band stamped to advance to the slalom course.

Slalom course did not disappoint. We had to pass three more phases of this course before we started racing each other. The course is designed to have two bikers side by side race down a series of turns and jumps. We had our own little mini tournament. Cameron beat me in the finals. Jake Kahler, Ryan Giles, Jeremy Johansen great runners- up though.

The high gear trails, courses and tracks were amazing. Highest quality. A most unique way of mountain biking. We could have spent the entire day up there. But had more to explore.

This was a usual issue that we had each day. We had the fortunate dilemma in deciding to stay and continue to do something that was amazing or go explore some other activity that is equal in overall excitement and enjoyment level

Monday (second to last day) a group of us (with Dave Petersen) went to the LOW GEAR (as opposed to the HIGH GEAR) mountain biking. We were satisfied with a high gear experience and thought that the low gear was more cross country type mountain biking and that it would be good but not as fun as the high gear. We were WRONG on both assumptions. We geared up again in full downhill gear including racing helmets and had to pass the assessment course. We decided to take the downill course over the many cross country paths (which I hear are excellent). We then were free to explore the 10 (a through j) different downhill courses that they created. We had to check in at the station and take the track that we registered for. We had the dilemma of deciding between beginner,intemed, advanced (black diamond). I was initially overzealous and registered us for a black diamond course but then had it changed to an intermediate course thinking about the level of skill of our boys. We had 14 in our group.

There were several HUNDRED mountain bikes racked. We googled the internet and found that these hundreds of exact bikes retailed at $2200. Again no corners cut at the Summit Bechtel Reserve. They spent 1 million dollars on justTHESE mountain bikes alone at LOW GEAR. Amazing.

The ride up was very exhausting for the boys but we kept hoping that the exertion to go up the mountain was going to be worth the sweat, pain, exhaustion. Holy Schmoley we were pleasantly surprised! Perhaps one of the most thrilling things I have done in a while. All boys were amazed at this “jump and turn course” Each turn was professionally designed and built so that all that was needed was a lean into the hairpin switchback turns that was then followed by a series of jumps that sent you airborne. The jumps were strategically designed for gentlelandings on the downslope. Three times my feet came off of the unclipped pedals and three times I thought I was going down. Wondered what ride we could have had with clipped in feet. Definitely would have taken the jumps with even more speed. Amazed how much time and effort was put into this course. We learned more about the group from British Columbia, Canada who were contracted to build these courses. They are considered to be the world's leaders in mountain bike course design. Yet again, no cutting of corners. Professioinal. Sweet. Epic. Amazing. Not one boy came down without extreme thrill in their eyes. Some fun outward vocal expressions of passionate excitement.

We would have been content to spend 7 consecutive days at the LOW gear courses but logistically we could only do one course as we were faced with the dilemma of needing to experience more of the venues.

BMX biking.

Whenever I have always heard the term BMX biking, I think of tattooed, Red Bull drinking x-games boys with their pants half down their legs riding and jumping around the track on ESPN. I have never in my life had the intention to watch or attend let alone participate in this kind of frivolous activity. I thought all was negative about this thing they call a “sport”. I admit my erroneous assumption. What a thrill!

We first were required to don the sweaty liquid equipment and then pass two phases of assessment before we could gothe the “big track”. A couple of boys could not pass the assessment. Those that did had an experience that was unforgettable. The big track consisted of a race course with the official ramp and starting gates. 9 gates/racers per start. The start included electronic swing-down start gates that you would see used in the Olympics. Very official, professional, expensive appearing course features. It felt so “official” and formal that the first time we started, it gave us all the jitters. We felt that we were competing in the X-Games.

Papenfuss beat me a couple of times but after I got the gist of riding BMX bikes, no one could beat me. I would have been willing to let these young boys beat me however the “old man can't do anything” or “your going down” trash talking compelled me to beat them consistently every time. I appropriately returned trash talk gently back to their senders but in the end we all high fived and enjoyed the course and the spirit of competition amongst us. I was even high fiving the “more serious” BMX boys from around the country. Great times. Great event. Great boys!

Jordan had a fantastic spill that we were able to video record.

They have I think 5 or 6 BMX courses at the jamboree. This caused for relative short wait times for a popular event. We spent several hours on another day at their largest BMX race track. Again because of the trash talk I could not resist to beat them in every heat (except the one heat that included a pro….prototypical BMX “athlete” perfectly described above).

The Barrels…rifle/shotgun/paintball.

Again no disappointment here. I am used to the usual boy scout camp cheap, small, not-exciting shooting events at scout camps. The venue is MASSIVE. The volunteers (as in all activities at Jambo) are highest quality professionals. We did some skeet/clay pigeon shooting and found out just how bad I am at it. The most impressive was the sport clay shooting. This is where you walk through the forest and visit several sites where clay pigeons come in from all different directions…up, down, sideways, across all at the same time or varying times. Huge, professional, impressive.

I did not have time to do Archery (no possible way to do everything- one would need about a month to do everything…seriously) but understand from some of the boys that it included very cool moving targets. I was impressed by even the description.

I did not have time to do any of the impressive zip lines, canopy tours, ropes courses that again are apparently world class venues/events here.

Also did not have time to do the Dragon boats, water obstacle course, advanced kayaking. Not enough time. Need a month.

Where in the world could you find anything even similar to this. No way anything like this exists. I cant help to think about how much you get for the cost of Jamboree starting from the minute you step foot at the airport. Not only would this be impossible from an expense standpoint but also it would be impossible to find these types of professional/high quality venues in such relatively close proximity to each other. It just doesn’t exist elsewhere. Not sure the boys recognize this despite us telling them what a unique place this is. Not sure all of them believe us. Many (not all are taking advantage of it.)

The amount of walking is just incredible. Those that are participating in the high adventure activities are usually walking several miles a day. 10 miles maybe? Depending on the day. I am sure at some point shuttles will be a part of the Jambo event.

Last Jambo day….

White water rafting.

I was able to get EVERY body in that expressed an interest in doing whitewater rafting. I was nervous about having the boy who had NOT registered walk all the way to the check in point and not get to go. I silently prayed that I could get them in. I also worried that I would not have been able to get the boys in that lacked proof that they had paid. I made several frantic phone calls to parents to have them email me the proof that they had paid. Amazingly I was able to find all of them on their cell phones.

To be continued…….